Incredible Woman #52 - Lynn Woodard. Hardest Thing, and What Helped...

KARA: "What was the hardest thing you had to go through during your cancer journey?"

LYNN: "Nights are the worst! Why, is it that the night time is the hardest when you are sick, lonely, sad or concerned about something? It is like the whole world is asleep and you are left completely alone with your thoughts.

It is weird remembering things that I experienced almost 9 years ago with my cancer, in some ways it is better because I know what to expect. Still in other ways it is worse, because I KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT!"

KARA: "What helped get you through it?"

LYNN: "Three things helped us that stand out in my mind. First is we changed the name Cancer to Recnac (that is Cancer spelled backwards). That was my kids' idea 9 years ago when I was diagnosed with Recnac for the first time. We decided as a family that Recnac was alot easier to talk about, not as scary and that we actually took some power from the cancer when we did that. Sounds funny but it worked. When my kids would tell anyone that their Mom had cancer, they would in return talk about all their family or friends who had cancer. Most of those stories weren't very good ones, and in most of the end of the story ... someone died. To this day, we don't know anyone who died from Recnac. We are not just trying to be ignorant or silly about such a serious disease, we just needed to take back some of our power and that is exactly what Recnac did for us. My son even designs a Recnac logo and we use it on the Recnac gifts that we have created for other survivors. Hopefully someday you will see them out there and available to your loved one who have been diagnosed with Recnac. We even designed Recnac monsters for little kids who are going through Recnac themselves or who have a loved one going through it!

Second is ...Knowledge is power! I do know that no problem, trial or pain that we experience is wasted. With these struggles come the ability to develop more patience, faith, courage and humility. Life truly changes when you go through trials of this magnitude and it is up to me if it changes for the better or worse. So no matter whether I think I can do this ...ready or not...I need to start moving forward with more faith and courage.

Third is...the love of family and friends! They were my rocks!"

KARA: "How did your cancer diagnosis change your life?"

LYNN: "I am much more patient and compassionate. I seem to be watching people more, wondering what type of battle they are fighting on their own and how I can help them. I truly understand what it means to have chronic pain. Along with cancer, I have had many problems with my health. I now judge less often. We just don't know by looking at someone, how their life is going."

Tomorrow, Lynn will talk about what she learned during her cancer journey, and how she changed during that time. Please join us again.